5 The competencies of works’ councils
5.1 Information and consultation rights in the Netherlands
The Dutch works council is an enterprise and not a union institution (Visser, 1995). The
1979 Works Council Act forms the present legal foundation of works councils in the
Netherlands (see Van der Heijden and De Gier, 1996: 128-130). In March 1998 the
Works Councils Act has been amended. Enterprises with less than 10 employees can
regularly organise meetings with their personnel. Enterprises with up to 50 employees are
free to establish a works council, a personnel delegation or regular meetings with the
personnel. The management of firms with 10-50 employees is obliged to establish a
personnel delegation employees demand this, which consists of three members and has a
rights of advice, information and co-determination. In 1998, the legal threshold for an
enterprise to establish a works council was changed from 35 to 50 employees. In 1997, 82
percent of all firms legally obliged to establish a works council were actually establishing
a works council (1992: 44 percent). 92 percent of the employees were working in a firm
with a works council (1992: 83 percent) (Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment,
1998).
Of a works council’s various powers, the right of consent on labour issues as well as the
rights of consultation and information are particularly important. Unless a collective
agreement already regulates the matter, employers must seek the works council’s consent
on labour-related topics such as working hours and holidays, payment systems and job
evaluation schemes, health and safety at work and the enterprise’s works rules (Van der
Heijden and De Gier, 1996: 129). Works councils also enjoy the right of prior
consultation on the enterprise’s economic situation and changing activities, the right of
regular consultation with the employer, and the right to information. Through provisions
in the collective wage agreements, also the rights and powers of works councils, which
are initially laid down in the Works Councils Act (Wet op de Ondernemingsraad, WOR),
may be expanded (such as in the case of the regulation of working time at company
level). Research reveals that such a role is granted in some form or another to nearly one-
third of all works councils (Van het Kaar and Looise 1999).
Of a firm’s permanent employees, union and non-union members have the same rights.
Works council members are chosen by free elections, which may take place every 2 or 4
years (at different moments in different enterprises). Employees, with or without union
consultation, make up candidate lists and then elect, by secret ballot, works council
members. A union list of candidates for a works council is automatically recognised by
law; non-recognised unions or non-unionised workers must collect a minimum of 30
signatures of a firm’s employees before they can present a list of candidates.24 Employers
24 Union affiliated to one of the national labour confederations are recognised automatically, but non-affiliated
unions may be recognised in certain industries or firms as well.
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